CU Connections Issue: March 20, 2014 Published on CU Connections (https://connections.cu.edu)

Alzheimer's research highlighted at CU Advocacy Day[1]

[2]

Alzheimer's disease is a "tsunami which will sink us if we don't solve the problem," said Huntington Potter, Ph.D., director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research and Clinical Center at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center, during CU Advocacy Day[3] at the state Capitol on Monday.

Potter was keynote speaker at this year's CU Advocacy Day, which drew about 200 participants from across the CU system for a day of reinforcing the university's economic, research and educational impact to those who set policy under the gold dome. The event was hosted by the CU Office of Government Relations[4] and CU Advocates Program[5] and drew lawmakers; several CU Regents; CU President Bruce Benson and his wife, Marcy; Don Elliman, chancellor of CU Denver | Anschutz Medical Campus; Lilly Marks, vice president for health affairs and executive vice chancellor of the Anschutz Medical Campus; and many CU Advocates.

Benson thanked the CU Advocates for participating in the statewide advocacy effort launched about two years ago. He also highlighted CU for Colorado[6], which brings attention to CU's involvement in hundreds of programs and clinics around the state.

"We're doing a lot for the citizens of Colorado, and we want everyone to know about it," Benson said. "I want to thank all of you for what you're doing. These two programs are very, very important to us."

Benson received a special honor from both chambers of the Legislature. Sen. Rollie Heath and Rep. Dickey Lee Hullinghorst led the joint tribute to Benson, who recently became the longest-serving CU president in more than 50 years.

Michael Carrigan, chair of the Board of Regents, began the morning by thanking CU Advocates—a group 2,400 strong and growing— for their service to the university.

"The CU Advocates, led exceptionally by Michele McKinney, help (the regents) go out and preach about the way the University of Colorado runs," Carrigan said. "We are four campuses doing great work. We need you to know about the great things CU is doing. Get the word out to elected officials, many of whom are in this building, and in your home communities. Thank you so much for adding your voice to that great chorus."

After receiving an introduction from Sen. Michael Johnston, whose father is battling Alzheimer's, Potter framed the profound scope of the disease. With half of the population expected to get Alzheimer's by the age of 85, it is the nation's top long-term health care issue.

"The current cost of Alzheimer's disease to the country is about $200 billion a year," Potter said. "By 2050, Medicare and Medicaid alone will spend $1 trillion a year on Alzheimer's if we don't solve this problem."

Potter explained the research and clinical trials occurring at CU, which is helped by collaborations between the School of Medicine[7]'s Department of Neurology[8], the Alzheimer's Disease Research and Clinical Center, the Memory and Dementia Clinic[9], and the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome[10]. CU Anschutz is an international leader in research into the connections between Alzheimer's disease and Down syndrome.

"That is one of the reasons why the university is such an important place (for research)," Potter said. "If you have collaboration between different groups of scientists, people working on rheumatoid arthritis, people working on cancer, Down syndrome, Alzheimer's disease—talking and working together—they're much more likely to get something good out of it."

Potter said the university is applying for a National Institutes of Health grant of about $1 million per year for five years to ensure that CU Anschutz becomes home of one of the nation's federally designated Alzheimer's disease research

Page 1 of 22 CU Connections Issue: March 20, 2014 Published on CU Connections (https://connections.cu.edu) centers. Currently, the Rocky Mountain and Midwest regions lack such a center.

"People have stood up and said they think this is important and what we hope now is that we can expand this (fundraising) to other donors, especially the Legislature, because they represent all Coloradans, and they're the ones who are going to benefit from the center," Potter said.

Three legislators—Reps. Kevin Priola and Mark Waller and Sen. Andy Kerr, who is a co-sponsor of SB1, which aims to add more than $100 million of reinvestment to higher education and restore a 6 percent cap on tuition rate increases—spoke to the CU group in the Old Supreme Court Chambers of the Capitol. The legislative contingent was introduced by Tanya Kelly-Bowry, vice president, CU Office of Government Relations.

Priola, an alumnus of CU-Boulder, said he works to point out to his statehouse colleagues "what a strong economic driver the University of Colorado is for the entire state and region. It's a precious gift and we have to not just maintain it but we need to strengthen it going forward."

Waller, House Minority leader in 2013, noted that he was the first person in his family to go to college. "Our responsibility as government officials is to create equal opportunity for individuals, and I know that higher education does that for people in this state."

Following visits to the floors of the Senate and House chambers, Advocates returned to the Old Supreme Court Chambers for a Q&A session with Potter, and to hear from Kelly-Bowry and Todd Saliman, vice president and chief financial officer, who briefed the audience on House Bill 1319. The legislation, introduced last week by House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, would change how state funding is distributed among higher education institutions. More money would be funneled into the College Opportunity Fund (COF), which follows resident students to the state institution of their choice, and allocation to colleges and universities would be based partly on factors such as student retention and graduation rates.

Saliman said CU isn’t opposed to the bill, but does have “serious concerns” about its impact and unintended consequences. Based on current figures, some colleges and universities would benefit from such changes; others, including CU, would stand to lose funding.

While Ferrandino has said he wants the bill passed into law during this, his last year in the House, Kelly-Bowry noted that CU’s Government Relations team successfully lobbied to have its implementation delayed until 2015-16, should it become law.

Ferrandino was expected to meet with governing boards of state institutions today; Kelly-Bowry said Advocates will be kept informed about developments at the Capitol, and may be called upon to contact legislators and comment on CU’s behalf depending on how the process unfolds.

[flagallery gid=16 name="Gallery"]

- Cathy Beuten and Jay Dedrick contributed to this report.

Five questions for Jennifer Caspari[11]

[12] The psychological wellness of cancer patients often can influence health outcomes. At the University of Colorado Hospital, Jennifer Caspari spends much of her time building relationships with patients, especially those involved with stem cell transplants, to help their recovery. Her work involves everything from providing general psychological support to assisting with non-pharmacological pain management.

Page 2 of 22 CU Connections Issue: March 20, 2014 Published on CU Connections (https://connections.cu.edu)

“One thing I love about this area of work is that I often have the opportunity to follow patients and families over a long period of time and create deep and connected therapeutic relationships,” she says. “What personally draws me to the work is the human connection and being a presence in the room through some very challenging events. I view my role as one that goes beyond specific techniques and psychological interventions: I come into a room and do my best to form connections and relationships.”

One of her recent projects at the hospital turned the focus on non-professional caregivers, who often spend much of their days caring for a sick spouse or relative.

As an assistant professor and psychologist with the division of hematology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, she also is involved with teaching first- and second-year medical students communication skills such as how to interview patients.

Caspari studied journalism as an undergraduate, but as she began taking upper-level reporter classes, she had second thoughts about journalism as a career. A reporter’s life – always on the go and with little structure – appealed to her less and less. What she did like, however, were her psychology classes. She decided to major in psychology and minor in communications.

“I really enjoy people and learning about their stories and how they got to where they are in life,” Caspari explained. She earned a master’s degree in counseling at George Washington University and then a Ph.D. at the University of Denver.

“I was always very interested in psychology and wellness, and I have a little bit of a personal connection. I have mild cerebral palsy -- I was born three months premature -- so I’ve had physical limitations and difficulties throughout my life. I am personally interested in how we take care of ourselves physically and mentally when we have challenges.”

After several training experiences in large hospital systems, she came to CU and has been with the university for about a year and a half. Although she spent her early years in New York, she considers Colorado her “home base.” Her family moved to Boulder when she was a teenager; her parents are still in Boulder and a sibling and her family live in Broomfield.

1. This month you initiated a workshop for caregivers of cancer patients. Why is a workshop like this one important and what do caregivers learn?

The workshop came out of a training I attended in California in July that was conducted by City of Hope. As part of the training, we were given the assignment of creating some type of caregiving program. What we know from the literature is that caregivers often are more distressed than the patients because they are managing many roles, usually without formal training or education.

Caregiving can be very stressful and overwhelming. We wanted to create a program that is a combination of teaching caregivers stress management skills and relaxation techniques and creates a little bit of a respite and a chance to meet other caregivers. We thought a workshop would be more feasible logistically than an ongoing support group because it’s less of a time commitment for caregivers.

Originally it was designed to be a two-part workshop but we decided to change that to two initial workshops and a follow-up session online that will hopefully be more accessible to caregivers. The booster session will be an hourlong webinar that will review stress managing skills and relaxation strategies.

One of the challenges of any caregiver program is to actually get them through the door. There’s a ton of interest, but because they are so taxed and spread thin, and often have little time, it can be challenging to get a large number of participants. Caregivers often experience guilt around taking time off.

In the future, we plan to either offer the caregiver workshop on an ongoing basis or reformat it into both a patient and caregiver program.

Page 3 of 22 CU Connections Issue: March 20, 2014 Published on CU Connections (https://connections.cu.edu)

What we teach the cancer caregivers can help caregivers of patients with any chronic or major medical illness. What we know from the research is that for most of these caregivers, there is no distinct end to the day. Caregiving continues 24/7 in most cases and a couple of studies show that, on average, cancer caregivers are in the role for at least a year.

2. What are some other research projects that you are involved with?

One major project that I have a fairly minor role in is one looking at a stress management intervention for caregivers of patients who are undergoing an allogeneic stem cell transplant. The principle investigator is Mark Laudenslager. The research expands on a prior study and looks at a structured stress management intervention offered to caregivers and how that intervention potentially influences caregiver stress and patient outcomes post-transplant.

Another pilot project that I’m involved with is one that is collecting data with the goal of expanding to a larger project. Psychologist Ben Brewer and I are interested in examining sleep during bone marrow transplants. We know patients don’t sleep well in the hospital, particularly when they are here for long periods of time. We hope to use the pilot data to create an intervention around improving sleep in the hospital during bone marrow transplant.

The third one concerns my doctoral dissertation, which looks at post-traumatic growth following cancer, or the positive psychological transformation that can come from a major life event. I looked at breast, prostate and colorectal cancer survivors and at the predictors of post-traumatic growth. I examined predictors of post-traumatic growth in a sample of breast, prostate and colorectal cancer survivors. I’m in the process of taking my very large dissertation and whittling it down to a manuscript that hopefully will be published.

I’m also involved with a staff training project related to demoralization in the medical setting. We made a video for nursing staff that demonstrates the difference between demoralization and major depression, which are distinct and have differences in the way they are treated. Demoralization doesn’t respond to psychotropic medication, for instance. We filmed various vignettes, with nurses and other staff roleplaying as patients, to teach staff how to recognize demoralization in patients and how to intervene.

3. Have you ever worked with a patient who has made a big impact on you?

One gentleman with whom I worked during fellowship stood out to me and I think of him often. He was an older gentleman in his 80s who had just been diagnosed with leukemia and was coming into the hospital for several rounds of inpatient chemo. A lot of our work was not necessarily directed toward his leukemia. About a year earlier, his wife of almost 70 years had died and he was still actively grieving. One day I was talking with him in his room and he mentioned a song from the ‘50s or ‘60s that really represented their relationship. He hadn’t heard this song in 30 or 40 years, but he often thought about it. I went home and found the song and put it on my iPod. The next day I brought him the iPod. It was a fun moment because he didn’t know what an iPod was and I had to explain to him how to put the ear buds in and how to turn it on. It was so moving because as soon as I played the song, he started singing aloud and had tears streaming down his face. It was such a touching moment and he was such a wonderful person to work with.

4. On the personal side, do you have a favorite object in your home, and if so, what is it and what is the story behind it?

Elephants. I have quite a few elephant statues and an elephant pillow in my home. My dad is South African and grew up in Johannesburg. Throughout my life, he planned a family trip there. For many years it was put off, but in 2006 we had the opportunity to see various parts of South Africa and go on safari. I really enjoy animals in general, and there is something about elephants that has always intrigued me. They are extremely empathic animals. It was amazing to see them in the wild. So I keep elephants around as a reminder of the trip, family and the great opportunities I have had in my life travel. The elephants bring up a lot of fond memories.

5. Do you have a goal that you want to complete in the next several years?

Initially I studied journalism and really enjoyed writing. In the back of my mind for the past couple of years, I’ve had an idea to write a book around what I would call “dating with a disability.” I am fortunate enough to be in a very wonderful,

Page 4 of 22 CU Connections Issue: March 20, 2014 Published on CU Connections (https://connections.cu.edu) long-term relationship now, but prior to that, I spent many years being single. As someone with a disability, I experienced a lot while navigating that world. I have the idea to combine some of my personal stories, experience and training as a psychologist, and the academic literature around romantic relationships and dating when someone has a disability or other type of challenge.

Social Climate Survey set to begin in April[13]

University of Colorado leadership took the first step to encourage faculty, staff and students to participate in a social climate survey slated to distribute in early April, the first broad-based attempt to measure how well CU is progressing on diversity, one of its 12 guiding principles[14].

In a letter expected to be delivered today to the university community, Board of Regents Chairman Michael Carrigan and President Bruce Benson are asking for broad participation in the survey, which is aimed at determining how well CU is promoting diversity in all its forms. The principle states the university commitment to, “Promote faculty, student and staff diversity to ensure the rich interchange of ideas in the pursuit of truth and learning, including diversity of political, geographic, cultural, intellectual and philosophical perspectives.”

The survey will be conducted by McLaughlin and Associates, an independent vendor hired after an RFP process. The firm developed the online instrument in collaboration with a joint committee of regents and faculty members experienced in research in the social sciences. It is the first systemwide survey of its type.

“While it’s important to have statements that reflect CU’s commitment to diversity, without data we cannot measure how well we are meeting our goals.” Carrigan and Benson wrote. “We hope it will give us a complete picture of where we are succeeding and where we need to devote more effort.”

After initial survey results are compiled, the board will engage the administration and governance groups about next steps.

The survey began after the board voted unanimously last fall to gauge how well CU meets the guiding principle related to diversity. The initiative came on the heels of a change to the Laws of the Regents to protect members of the university community from discrimination. The change prohibits discrimination based on political affiliation, political philosophy, gender identity and gender expression.

Bioscience collaborations across the CU system receive boost[15]

From left, Jane Butcher, Tom Cech, Leslie Leinwand and Jack Szostak at the Butcher Symposium in November.

Seven recipients of the 2014 Butcher Seed Grant Awards recently were notified of their winning proposals in interdisciplinary bioscience. These grants bring critical funding to many of Colorado’s top academic researchers wanting to expand their scientific discoveries and build new collaborations that span disciplines and academic institutions. This year’s winning proposals are collaborative efforts between researchers across the University of Colorado system and National Jewish Health. Winners will receive between $70,000 and $75,000 to further their research projects.

The Butcher Symposium began in 2002 as a grassroots effort to bring together scientists from across the CU system to

Page 5 of 22 CU Connections Issue: March 20, 2014 Published on CU Connections (https://connections.cu.edu) create collaborations and share data. Butcher Seed Grants were awarded in 2002, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2012 to fund potentially transformative new scientific pilot projects that required researchers with different expertise to work together to address critical challenges in the biosciences.

The Butcher Program was founded through the generosity of longtime CU supporters Charlie and Jane Butcher, who saw the potential for “big picture” scientific thinking and creative cross-discipline research to transform lives. The seed grants were awarded this year thanks to continued support from the Butcher family, and CU-Boulder and CU Anschutz Medical Campus leaders.

In addition to supporting the symposium and the seed grants, the support from the Butchers also established the Charlie Butcher Award in Biotechnology to recognize scientists from around the world who are using interdisciplinary science to make a significant impact on human welfare and health. The 2013 award went to Harvard biologist Jack Szostak, whose discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres won him the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

For additional information on the Butcher Program and on Charlie and Jane Butcher, please visit: http://biofrontiers.colorado.edu/butcher[17].

This year’s winning proposals offer an exciting look into the biomedical research going on in Colorado, covering everything from studying seizures in the brain using small fiber optical devices, to finding ways of using the vast collection of microbiome data for diagnosing disease. The awardees are:

“Optimized deep-brain imaging of activity in over a hundred neurons for imaging seizures” Emily Gibson (PI) Department of Bioengineering, University of Colorado Denver l Anschutz Medical Campus Juliet Gopinath (Co-PI) Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder Victor Bright (Co-PI) Department of Mechanical Engineering, CU-Boulder “Developing a Platform for in vivo Imaging of Chronic Bacterial Infection” Corrella Detweiler (PI) Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, CU-Boulder Amy Palmer (Co-PI) BioFrontiers Institute and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, CU-Boulder “Single-molecule physical probing of glycan recognition by viral capsid proteins” Robert L. Garcea (PI) BioFrontiers Institute and Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, CU- Boulder Thomas Perkins (Co-PI) JILA, NIST, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, CU- Boulder “Conformational dynamics of dystrophin probed using single-molecule FRET” Krishna Mallela (PI) Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, CU Anschutz Medical Campus David Nesbitt (Co-PI) JILA, NIST Quantum Physics Division, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, CU-Boulder “Extracting diagnostic signals from human microbiome data” Aaron Clauset (PI) BioFrontiers Institute and Department of Computer Science, CU-Boulder Ken Krauter (Co-PI) Institute for Behavioral Genetics and Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, CU-Boulder Matt McQueen (Co-PI) Institute for Behavioral Genetics and Department of Integrative Physiology, CU-Boulder “The Nano Rainbow: Multicolor Biolabels for Simultaneous Molecular Scale Tracking and Tailored Assays of Biological Agents” Kevin Tvrdy (PI) Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado Colorado Springs Anatoliy Pinchuk (Co-PI) BioFrontiers Center and Department of Physics and Energy Science, UCCS “Targeted Delivery of Antioxidant Peptides to the Pulmonary Arteries for the Treatment of Pulmonary Hypertension” Leah R. Villegas (PI) Department of Pediatrics/Cardiovascular Pulmonary Research, CU Anschutz Medical Campus MyPhuong T. Le (Co-PI) Department of Renal Medicine, CU Anschutz Medical Campus As a new extension of the Butcher seed grant program, grants for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows were sponsored by the student-led BioFrontiers Science Alliance. These monetary awards were made possible through generous donations from Roy Parker, Leslie Leinwand and Mike Yarus, and the BioFrontiers Institute. To be eligible, these research projects needed to be led by a CU-Boulder graduate student or postdoctoral fellow with a collaborator from a different department. These researchers were also required to present a poster about their work at the 2013 Butcher Symposium. Seven applications for the grants were submitted.

Page 6 of 22 CU Connections Issue: March 20, 2014 Published on CU Connections (https://connections.cu.edu)

Two seed grants were funded at $2,000 and a third was funded at $1,500. The awardees are:

“Analyzing polyomavirus factories with double-helix super resolution microscopy” Katie Heiser (Lead) Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, CU-Boulder Anthony Barsic (Collaborator) Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, CU-Boulder Kevin Dean (Collaborator) BioFrontiers Advanced Imaging Resource, CU-Boulder

“Characterizing structural variants in a mouse model of alcohol dependence” Eitan Halper-Stromberg (Lead) Department of Computational Biosciences, CU Denver Aaron Odell (Collaborator) Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, CU-Boulder “Non-invasive monitoring of MMP activity of cardiac fibroblasts cultured under diseased and fibrotic microenvironment” Jennifer Leight (Lead) Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, CU-Boulder William Wan (Collaborator) Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, CU-Boulder

Obituary: Stephen Alexander Fischer-Galati[18]

[19] Stephen Alexander Fischer-Galati, Distinguished Professor Emeritus in History at the University of Colorado Boulder, died peacefully on March 10, 2014, in Boulder. He was 89.

Born in Romania on April 15, 1924, to Dr. Theodore and Cecilie Fischer-Galati, he escaped the country with his family during the early stages of World War II, finishing his high school studies in Andover, Mass., before attending Harvard University, where he received his A.B. (1945), M.A. (1946) and Ph.D. (1949) in History. In an English class at Harvard, he met his future wife, Anne D’Esterre Pratt. They were married on January 20, 1951. Daughter Wendy was born in Boston and daughter Nancy in Detroit.

In addition to CU-Boulder, Stephen was a professor at Wayne State University; Visiting Professor, Indiana University; MacArthur Professor, New College of the University of South Florida; and Visiting Professor, Central European University in Budapest.

In 1967, Stephen conceived the idea of founding an international journal as a means of providing a channel for the resumption of serious research and meaningful dialogue among scholars East and West, through publication of significant contributions to the field of East European history, sociology, economics, literature and other social sciences. For the following 42 years, nearly 1,000 articles by scholars young and old from throughout the world appeared in the East European Quarterly under his editorship. In 1970, he entered into collaboration with Columbia University Press to distribute the East European Monographs series devoted to scholarly studies on, or related to, East Central and Southeastern Europe. The East European Monographs now comprises over 800 volumes produced by members of the international intellectual community. His own research and publication record is equally prolific: Stephen authored more than 250 articles and contributions to books, and authored or co-authored over 15 books.

Stephen received many honors and awards for his scholarship, including Doctor Honoris Causa from Maria Curie- Sklodowska University (Poland, 2006) and the University of Craiova (Romania, 1994); Guggenheim Fellowship; Carnegie Endowment for International Peace grant; and several National Endowment for the Humanities research grants. He was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Science and the Romanian Academy. His highest honor was being awarded the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Centennial Medal in 2010, for his “lifelong commitment to chronicling the history of East and Central Europe, tireless support of junior scholars in the field, and remarkable legacy as a scholarly publisher.”

Stephen was an avid bridge player, a fierce proponent of the net game in tennis and table tennis, and a knowledgeable opera fan. He once stumped the Metropolitan Opera’s Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcasts expert and won himself a

Page 7 of 22 CU Connections Issue: March 20, 2014 Published on CU Connections (https://connections.cu.edu) nice set of records. He was a world traveler who spent countless hours studying train, plane, and boat schedules – only Antarctica remained an unvisited continent.

He is preceded in death by his parents, Theodore and Cecilie, and brother Marc. He will be greatly missed by his wife of 63 years, Anne; daughters Wendy Focht and Nancy Tyson; granddaughters Elizabeth and Lindsay Focht; niece Ann Cecilie Fisher-Galati, and loyal cadre of former students who know him as “the Chief.” Please visit www.cristmortuary.com[20] to see Stephen's online memorial and share your story. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailycamera/obituary.aspx?n=stephen-fischer- galati&pid=170123186&fhid=6726#sthash.6UvWIzBs.dpuf[21]

Regents recognize commitment, service of exceptional individuals[22]

The 2014 slate of honorary degrees and university medal honoree, presented by the University of Colorado Board of Regents, has been announced:

HONORARY DEGREE

Joan Charlotte von Bartheld Balsells was a pioneer among women in engineering and business, a distinguished alumna of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at CU-Boulder, and a 1951 Aeronautical Engineering program graduate. Joan finished at the top of her class. Following a successful career at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Joan and her husband, Pete Balsells, began a small manufacturing business from their home which grew into a worldwide leader and launched a new industry. Bal Seal Engineering Inc. has a global presence and creates custom sealing, connecting and shielding solutions for a variety of industrial, medical and aerospace applications and has been awarded approximately 200 patents. In 1994, Joan and her husband’s business success provided the assets to initiate a fellowship program that funded students from Catalan, Spain, to pursue graduate studies at the University of California, Irvine. Through the Balsells Foundation, the program has expanded to include fellowship programs at CU-Boulder and UCCS. There are currently 36 Balsells fellows pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees at these three universities with the program having funded more than 130 past graduates since its inception. Joan lost a long battle with cancer in 1995, but her legacy lives on in Bal Seal Engineering Inc. and the Balsells Fellowship program. (Honorary Degree Doctor of Science, CU-Boulder Commencement, May 9)

Henry N. Claman, M.D., was educated at Harvard College and New York University College of Medicine. After internal medicine training at Barnes Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, and two years in the U.S. Army, he came to the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Henry's numerous contributions have been acknowledged by being named as a Distinguished Professor of the University of Colorado and by his receipt of the prestigious Thomas Jefferson Award of the University of Colorado. Henry was a pioneer in immunology research. His discovery that there are two types of lymphocytes (T and B cells) set the foundation for major advances in the contemporary science of immunology. Henry 's scientific contributions in immunology are widely recognized and acknowledged by his receipt of several awards from national and international organizations, most recently the 2009 Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Award for unique contributions to immunologic sciences. Henry has long been involved in the humanities and the arts, both inside and outside the School of Medicine. Henry is the Founder and Associate Director of the Arts and Humanities in Healthcare Program, the Founding editor of The Human Touch, a University of Colorado School of Medicine literary anthology, and the original organizer of the School of Medicine's Monday Noon Humanities Lecture series. Henry is the author of several published poems and a book titled "Jewish Images in the Christian Church" (Mercer Press, 1998). Henry has been a significant financial contributor to the educational and scholarship missions of the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Henry has established an endowed Chair for the Head of the Department of Immunology and Allergy within the Department of Medicine and has made numerous additional financial contributions to the missions of the University's School of Medicine. Henry has a track record as a superior scholar and citizen, and has acknowledged expertise in the field of medical history and the arts and humanities. Henry has demonstrated that a well-rounded scientist/clinician/educator with special knowledge of history and the arts can apply principles and lessons from the arts to enhance the humanistic aspects of medical practice. (Honorary Degree Doctor

Page 8 of 22 CU Connections Issue: March 20, 2014 Published on CU Connections (https://connections.cu.edu) of Humane Letters, CU Anschutz Commencement, May 23)

Lyda Hill has accomplished many things during her lifetime. From her leadership roles in businesses and professional organizations to her philanthropic vision, Lyda is a woman who demonstrates the tremendous impact that one person can have in the lives of many. Lyda's generosity is known throughout the country and around the world. In her primary role, she is President of LH Holdings and the Lyda Hill Foundation. She also is a member of the Giving Pledge, an organization started by the Bill Gates Foundation in which members pledge to donate all of their financial assets to charity. At UCCS, Lyda launched the UTeach program with a major donation and also made major financial contributions to develop a Veteran's Trauma Clinic. Lyda pledged $50 million to the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and donated $20 million to the Hockaday School. Lyda funded the creation of the Garden of the Gods Visitor Center in Colorado Springs and ensured that all revenue generated would be used to maintain the park's natural beauty. Lyda donated $1 million to National Public Radio in Dallas and significantly financed the rebuilding/renovation of the Fort Worth Stockyards. As a leader, Lyda is working to ensure that corporate leaders, and particularly women, continue to give back to their communities. Lyda has served as President of the World President's Organization. She has provided her vision and leadership to the Dallas Assembly, the Chief Executive Organization, the Citizen's Council of Dallas, the Garden of the Gods Foundation, the Colorado Thirty Group, and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Lyda is a member of the Committee of 200, which is a group of the world's most successful women who are corporate leaders and entrepreneurs. Lyda is a member of the International Women's Forum and recently accepted an invitation to join the Charter 100, a business organization for the top 100 women in America who build and foster a network of communication throughout the world. Lyda's business success and philanthropy have been recognized with a number of honors and awards including the Dallas Junior League Lifetime Achievement Award (2011), Outstanding Alumni at Hollins University (2009), and the University of Colorado Distinguished Service Award (2002). (Honorary Degree Doctor of Humane Letters, UCCS Commencement, May 23)

Lanis “Lanny” Pinchuk was the College of Engineering and Applied Science's first Director of Engineering Development, Assistant Dean and Director of Alumni and Corporate Relations, and a longtime volunteer since his retirement in 1991. Lanny Pinchuk has been the ultimate "friend-raiser" and "fundraiser" on behalf of the College of Engineering and Applied Science and the broader University of Colorado. Annual private support for the College of Engineering and Applied Science has increased more than tenfold during his tenure. CU development and alumni relations have benefited greatly from Lanny's dedicated involvement over the past 30-plus years as a member of numerous department, college, campus and foundation boards; his generous financial contributions; and his relentless recruitment of volunteers, advocates and sponsors. Lanny has received the College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award, CU's Alumni Recognition Award, the President's University Service Award, the Minority Engineering Program's Distinguished Service Award, the College's Centennial Medal and the Robert L. Stearns Award for Extraordinary Service. When he retired in 1991, friends and alumni established an endowed undergraduate scholarship fund in his honor that has supported 54 students. Lanny is an incredible connector of people: He knows and remembers everyone, and seems to delight in introducing and sharing each person's strengths and interests. He is always on the lookout for opportunities to talk about the great things going on at CU, in the College of Engineering, and in the Aerospace Department. His pride in CU’s accomplishments makes it clear that he truly considers CU an integral part of his life. (Honorary Degree Doctor of Science, CU-Boulder Commencement, May 9)

UNIVERSITY MEDAL

Bruce Schroffel. As the new President and CEO of University Colorado Hospital in 2006, Schroffel inherited a facility mired in debt, with foundering bond ratings, and facing a risky move of the whole facility from Ninth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard to the campus of the former Fitzsimons Army Hospital. Through consistent hard work, remarkable vision, focus on key operational issues, and skillful identification, recruiting and hiring of talented staff, Schroffel oversaw a stunning financial turnaround for the hospital, a smooth transition to its new location, and the achievement of new standards of excellence in patient care and safety. UCH has ranked among the top 10 university teaching hospitals for the past three years, achieving the top spot twice. Schroffel's commitment and ability to work positively and productively with the University of Colorado School of Medicine resulted in a true collaborative partnership not only with regard to patient care but also medical education and scholarship. Schroffel bears an immense commitment to patients, which extends to students, trainees and faculty of the School of Medicine. Daily, he walked the halls of the hospital, introducing himself to residents, medical students, faculty and nurses, and working to build a close

Page 9 of 22 CU Connections Issue: March 20, 2014 Published on CU Connections (https://connections.cu.edu) relationship with his employees. Schroffel demonstrated his belief in the importance of positive and mutually respectful collaboration between the hospital and the School of Medicine by creating a major endowment within the hospital foundation for the School, as well as contributing to the Endowment for the Dean of the School of Medicine within the CU Foundation. In his new role as the CEO of University of Colorado Health, he has established an annual bottom-line profit distribution in support of the School's academic initiatives. His actions underscore what is consistently seen as a rare and unusual positive relationship between the leadership of a university teaching hospital and that of its affiliated medical school. (University Medal, CU Anschutz Commencement, May 23)

CU-Boulder alum Steve Swanson heading for space station[23]

Steve Swanson walks in space (NASA photo)

[25] University of Colorado Boulder alumnus and NASA astronaut Steve Swanson on Tuesday will blast off with two Russian crewmates for the International Space Station, his third mission to the orbiting facility.

But this time he will not be riding in the familiar confines of a NASA space shuttle -- the fleet was retired in 2011 -- but in a capsule atop a Soyuz TMA-12 rocket launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Not only will he blast off from there, he is slated to land in the capsule, which is somewhat similar to a NASA Apollo capsule, on the steppe of Kazakhstan in September after spending roughly six months in space.

Swanson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering physics from CU-Boulder in 1983, will serve as flight engineer for Expedition 39, which already will be underway on the ISS when he arrives. In late May, Swanson, who considers Steamboat Springs his hometown, will become space station commander as Expedition 40 begins.

Swanson will be launched to the ISS along with cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian Federal Space Agency.

“We’ve trained extensively and I’m confident I can do all of the tasks assigned to me on the space station,” Swanson said. “The difficult part is being away from my family and friends for a long period. I’ll miss them, but at the same time we will be very busy up there, which makes the time pass quickly.”

The astronaut crew will be involved in dozens of research experiments in the low gravity of the ISS, including efforts related to protein crystal growth, capillary blood flow, gravity sensing by plants and muscle and bone loss changes in space.

As part of his duties, Swanson will operate hardware developed by BioServe Space Technologies located in CU- Boulder’s aerospace engineering department to conduct two experiments on the space station, both being launched later this year. One led by Dr. Timothy Hammond of the Department of Veterans Affairs will use a yeast-based assay system to evaluate known and novel anti-cancer drug therapies in the low gravity of space. A second led by professor Cheryl Nickerson of Arizona State University will evaluate host-pathogen interactions to better understand the risk of in- flight infections by space explorers during long-term missions.

Swanson previously flew on the STS-17 mission aboard the space shuttle Atlantis to the ISS in June 2007, then flew again on the STS-19 mission aboard Discovery in March 2009. Swanson spacewalked for more than 26 hours during the two missions and is tentatively slated for two more spacewalks during Expedition 39 and Expedition 40.

What does Swanson, whose two shuttle landings were on a smooth NASA runway in Florida, think about drifting by parachute in the Soyuz space capsule on the way from the space station back to Earth, eventually banging onto the ground in Kazakhstan? “I know this landing will be much more wild and exciting than a shuttle landing,” he said. “It is

Page 10 of 22 CU Connections Issue: March 20, 2014 Published on CU Connections (https://connections.cu.edu) going to be a very different experience, and I’m looking forward to it.”

Swanson will be packing several CU mementos, including a T-shirt, flag and a small piece of sandstone from the engineering center that has been engraved with a picture of Ralphie the Buffalo and an image of the International Space Station.

What does he recall about his time at CU-Boulder? “I remember waking up and seeing the mountains right there,” he said. “It was a beautiful thing, and helped me get going every day. I really liked CU-Boulder -- it is a good school, with good professors -- and I love to ski, I love to hike. I like the culture.”

His favorite times on the space station? “One of the best things is when you have a moment to yourself where you can just look out the window,” he said. Swanson also said he will spend what little free time he has emailing with family and friends back on Earth, blogging about his space station experiences and hopefully participating in a Google Hangout, sharing messages and photos and video-chatting with CU-Boulder students.

Some 18 CU-Boulder astronaut-affiliates have flown 47 NASA space missions beginning with Scott Carpenter in 1962.

Former NASA astronaut Jim Voss, who received his master’s degree in aerospace engineering sciences from CU- Boulder in 1974, currently is a CU-Boulder Scholar in Residence. Former NASA astronaut Joe Tanner currently is a senior instructor in aerospace engineering.

To watch a video of Swanson talking about his NASA experiences and his passion for Colorado’s outdoors: Video of KU53X7O7z7w

Postdoctoral research day highlights innovation[26]

[27]

Innovation and creativity were the main themes running through the fifth annual Postdoctoral Research Day[28] on March 14 at the Anschutz Medical Campus.

This year’s keynote speech, entitled “So You Think You Can Innovate?” was delivered by Roberta Ness[29], MD, MPH, dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Texas and an expert on creativity and innovation in the sciences. In her speech, Ness highlighted how “innovation is the engine of science and progress” but said her belief that the term ‘innovation’ is used so often the term has lost its meaning.

Society’s desire to explain innovation as “creativity with a use” is problematic for Ness. She feels that an individual’s sense of creativity is a personal trait. She talked about visiting an art museum with her husband and looking at a completely black canvas. She said her husband's reaction was "Wow! that’s so cool.'”

Her take: “That’s a complete piece of garbage.”

Humor as Innovation

Ness offered her own definition of creativity as “surprise in the service of health and prosperity.” Humor, she said, is the highest form of innovation because in humor we are all surprised at the same moment and, therefore, we all laugh at the same moment.

“We use surprise in science,” she said, “because we’re trying to forward health and/or prosperity - that’s what

Page 11 of 22 CU Connections Issue: March 20, 2014 Published on CU Connections (https://connections.cu.edu) science is all about.”

In addition to the keynote speech and roundtable discussions centered around non-academic careers, two poster sessions featured more than 60 displays of the independent research being conducted by postdocs at CU’s Anschutz and Denver campuses, National Jewish Health and Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Researching infant fat gain

Bridget E. Young[30], postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pediatrics of the School of Medicine, showcased her study to discover if maternal obesity affects early infant fat gain. Young wanted to find out if if maternal obesity impacts certain components in breast milk that could affect infant fat gain in the first few months of life. The study revealed that, while the fat and calorie content of breast milk did not differ between normal weight and overweight mothers, infants of overweight or obese mothers had more lean body mass then infants of normal weight mothers.

“It’s amazing and encouraging to see that there are very few differences in breast milk composition between these two groups of very different women,” Young says. “Since it doesn’t appear to be differences in the milk, we are excited to finish the study and hopefully determine what is driving the higher fat-free mass among infants of overweight mothers.”

Katherine Belendiuk[31], postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry, studied two groups of Colorado teenagers to discover the effect of marijuana commercialization on adolescent drug treatment outcomes. The first group of participants entered a drug treatment plan prior to Colorado’s approval of medical marijuana in 2009, and the findings were compared against a group of participants who entered a drug treatment plan after 2009.

Belendiuk found that participants who entered the drug treatment plan after 2009 tested positive for higher levels of marijuana in their body, took longer to get “clean” and were less likely to be pot-free at the end of treatment. This was attributed in part to the increase of marijuana dispensaries available to tempt users of the drug. Belendiuk now hopes to analyze the density of dispensaries close to the homes and schools of participants to see if it influences treatment outcomes.

Five participants, who received the highest scores during poster competition, have received a CU spending line-of- credit as prize: Nicholas D’Amato, Pathology, SOM -- Jennifer Richer mentor Daisy Dai, Dermatology, SOM -- Dennis Roop mentor Amanda Pilling, Medical Oncology, SOM -- Robert Doebele mentor Swati Jain, Renal Diseases and Hypertension, SOM -- Alkesh Jani mentor Andre Tavares, Craniofacial Biology, SODM – David Clouthier mentor The Postdoctoral Association also issued its first-ever award for postdoctoral mentoring to Jacob (Jed) Friedman[32], Pediatrics.

Student dance raises more than $7,000 for nonprofit children’s cancer organization[33]

[34]

CU Denver students recently ‘put on their dancin’ shoes’ and kept time to the music as part of an effort to raise money for Brent’s Place[35].

The mission at Brent’s Place is to help children living with cancer by providing housing and programs through community partnerships. At Brent’s Place families are offered hope and healing when facing the most demanding time of their lives. This nonprofit organization supports children with cancer and life threatening illnesses by providing housing at no cost to the families.

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Last summer, a group of CU Denver students started planning an event to raise money for Brent’s Place. The result was a Dance Marathon, held last month on the Auraria Campus. The planning team included five undergraduate students, two recently-graduated CU alumni and a staff adviser.

Staff adviser Nelson Rodriguez said, "We had a rigorous application and selection process to identify our beneficiary, Brent’s Place. . . After narrowing it down to a top three, we felt Brent's Place was a great choice for us."

Committee member Fatima Moumen said, “Along with the committee’s hard work, passion, and drive, the event was put together with zero budget. Performers, deejays and food vendors all donated their goods/services free of charge.”

When the music ended, participants had raised $7,502. Business student Luisa Harms (center of photo above, on Milo the Mascot;s right) raised $1,115 to win the grand prize for top individual fundraiser which was a pair of tickets to the Robin Thicke concert along with a watch. Second top fundraiser Rebecca Elmore, a graduate student and SACAB representative, raised $717.

The top fundraising teams were: --Student Government Association (SGA): $1737 --Business Student Ambassador Committee: $1350 --The Pace Makers: $435

With one successful event wrapped up, Moumen said, “The Dance Marathon committee is hoping it will start a new tradition on campus for an annual dance marathon.” You can Follow the progress on facebook[36].

Study on lunar crater counting shows crowdsourcing effective, accurate tool[37]

Video of fGQF2-G4jNw If Galileo were still alive and kicking, he might want to take a selfie with some of the thousands of citizen scientists all around the world for their surprisingly accurate work of counting craters on the pock-marked moon.

A new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder showed that as a group, volunteer counters who examined a particular patch of lunar real estate using NASA images did just as well in identifying individual craters as professional crater counters with five to 50 years of experience. And Galileo, who was observing the craters some 400 years ago with a rudimentary telescope, likely would be in awe.

“The new research points out that crowdsourcing is a viable way to do planetary science,” said Research Scientist Stuart Robbins of CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, who led the study. The study compared the results of eight professional planetary crater counters with several thousand amateur crater counters from every corner of the globe.

“What we can say is that a very large group of volunteers was able to chart these features on the moon just as well as professional researchers,” Robbins said. “More importantly, we now have evidence that we can use the power of crowdsourcing to gather more reliable data from the moon than we ever thought was possible before.”

A paper on the subject was published online March 4 in the journal Icarus.

The crater-counting effort was initiated by CosmoQuest, a citizen science Web project that contributes real science to NASA space missions through the use of volunteers. In addition to analyzing high-resolution photos of the moon, the volunteers are helping planetary scientists tally craters on Mercury and the asteroid Vesta.

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Developed by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) Assistant Professor Pamela Gay, also a study co-author, CosmoQuest includes educational features, forums, blogs, online hangouts and galleries. It even has a human versus machine contest pitting individual citizen scientists against computerized crater mapping programs.

“Craters on the moon are important to scientists because they are a record of the cosmic mayhem that went on during the early formation of our solar system,” said Robbins. Most scientists believe that period was like a giant, madhouse billiard game, with comets, asteroids, moons and planets randomly slamming into each other for hundreds of millions of years.

“The early solar system bombardment recorded on the lunar surface allows scientists to look backward in time to see the conditions early Earth likely endured,” said Robbins. “As scientists, we not only want to know what events happened, but when.”

The images under study by both the volunteer crater counters and the experts were taken by a camera onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched in 2009. “Our citizen scientists are helping professional scientists explore the lunar surface, including spotting hazards and safe havens for future moon missions,” he said.

In a very rough estimate, Robbins calculated through the extrapolation process that there are some 500 million craters on the moon larger than about 35 feet across created by impacting objects. Unlike Earth, the moon never had tectonic plate movements, erosion and has not experienced widespread volcanism for billions of years – processes that tend to “erase” geological features like impacts on Earth.

A lack of these processes leaves the moon harboring dozens of craters that are roughly one-third the length of the United States or larger, he said. By comparison, the largest known crater impact on Earth – and there are less than 200 known, all told – is the Vredefort crater in South Africa, which is only 190 miles, or 300 kilometers, across.

For the lunar crater-counting project, several images of small portions of the moon were put online and the planetary science professionals and the citizen scientists were asked to identify craters in the images that were at least 18 or more pixels, said Robbins. The area of the high-resolution images under study by the crater counters for the project was about 1.4 square miles, or roughly the area of 1,000 football fields.

Eighteen pixels in the images are equal to a crater about 35 feet, or 11 meters, in diameter, he said. The variation between individuals counting craters can be substantial for both experts and volunteers. Even the total craters counted by experts in a single image varied by as much as 100 percent, or a factor of two. But when averaged by group, the population of craters found by the experts and citizen scientists were statistically similar, said Robbins.

“The results from the study were very reassuring to us,” said Robbins, who also is affiliated with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder (SwRI). “Without this first step of verifying the accuracy of volunteer crater counters, there would be no point in continuing the project. Our study results mean we can now use the power of crowdsourcing to gather more data than we ever thought possible before.”

He likened the new crater study of the moon as stepping onto “the first rung of a ladder” in the solar system, with further rungs being rocky bodies like Mars, Mercury and asteroids. “Our view now is to let the scientists focus on the science, and willing volunteers can do crowdsourcing work by marking craters -- even if they do it at night while watching television,” he said.

“We’ve only just begun to tap the usefulness of crowdsourcing through CosmoQuest’s Moon Mappers, Asteroid Mappers and Mercury Mappers portals,” Robbins said.

CosmoQuest has also provided workshops through SIUE for educators working as part of national STEM efforts, which are designed to transform undergraduate education and boost the numbers of college graduates pursuing teaching careers.

In addition to CU-Boulder, SIUE and SwRI, study co-authors are from Western Ontario University, Mount Holyoke College, the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Washington University in St. Louis. The study was funded primarily by

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NASA’s Lunar Science Institute and the Maryland Space Grant Consortium.

Conflict in Crimea close to home for faculty, staff member[38]

[39] Dramatic images of Russian soldiers, buildings on fire, and streets in the Ukranian republic of Crimea filled with protestors are difficult for two UCCS community members to watch.

Anatoliy Glushchenko, associate professor, Department of Physics and Energy Sciences, and Oksana Glushchenko, accountant, Resource Management, shared their experiences and knowledge of the conflict in the hope of helping other Americans understand the turmoil in the Eastern European nation. The issues are complicated and long- standing, but they do not believe Ukraine will collapse or that fighting will spread to the Ukrainian mainland.

“We are hoping for the best,” Oksana said. “We hope the fighting will stop where it started.”

The Glushchenkos have spoken with friends and family in the Ukraine and shared those accounts, as well as their personal experiences in the country. They immigrated to the U.S. in 2000, joined UCCS in 2005 and 2006 and became U.S. citizens in 2013. Over coffee at Daz Bog, a Russian-American owned campus coffee shop, the couple shared their impressions of the conflict that has dominated world news.

“With 45 million people, Ukraine is the largest European country,” Anatoliy said. “When you look at the map, it is the size of France and population is about the same. But because of the fact it was behind the Iron Curtain, people know little about Ukraine.”

Ukraine borders Russia, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. With the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, the country became an independent democracy, a path that Anatoliy believes fit with its long history and the desire of its citizens. He estimated that 80 percent of Ukrainian adults have advanced degrees as well as long-standing gender equality beliefs. Those factors helped the nation to quickly embrace concepts of capitalism and democracy.

The February ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovychin by the country’s Parliament is an example of democracy in action, Anatoly said. But it was that move by Parliament, and Yanukovych ‘s turn to Russian leaders for help, that led to the Russian troops occupying Crimea, an autonomous republic of Ukraine on the north coast of the Black Sea. Crimea is important for military and trade access and was part of Russia until the 1950s.

Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for agreements from the U.S., United Kingdom and Russia about the integrity of its territory. Enforcement of those agreements has placed the country in the midst of a diplomatic tug of war. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with his Russian counterpart, days ahead of a planned referendum by the citizens of Crimea. President Obama has criticized Russian actions.

Anatoliy praised the international community for its quick reaction.

“That’s how it should be in a civilized, modern world,” he said.

DiStefano appointed to Colorado Innovation Network (COIN) advisory board[40]

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University of Colorado Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano

Chancellor Philip DiStefano has been appointed to the advisory board of the Colorado Innovation Network (COIN), an organization launched by Gov. John Hickenlooper in 2011 to encourage public-private collaboration in industries expected to create new jobs.

COIN is a privately funded organization in the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. It describes itself as a catalyst for economic prosperity through innovation by partnering with government, business and civil society to foster collaboration.

“I want to continue to help Colorado develop into the most innovative state in the nation,” DiStefano said. “An environment of innovation fosters job creation.”

As Chancellor of the University of Colorado Boulder, DiStefano has experience in uniting higher education, Colorado’s federal labs, and local incubators and accelerators.

DiStefano opened CU-Boulder’s Office of Industry Collaboration in September to support the Chancellor’s goal of increasing campus research contracts with industry from $20 million to $100 million annually. The office is directed by Caroline Himes, who was the executive associate director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics for 16 years.

In his role on the COIN Advisory Board, DiStefano will work with Mark Sirangelo, the state’s Chief Innovation Officer and the chairman of the COIN board who was appointed by Hickenlooper in August. Sirangelo is also Corporate Vice President and Chairman of Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems, based in Louisville.

Sirangelo also serves on the Chancellor’s Strategic Advisory Board that is helping CU-Boulder achieve the Chancellor’s campus priorities of creating innovations to serve students, identifying new sources of funding, and building the reputation of CU-Boulder.

DiStefano will serve a two-year term on the COIN advisory board.

Greenwood authors study on outsourcing public services[42]

[43] Daphne T. Greenwood, professor in the Department of Economics and director of the Colorado Center for Policy Studies based at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, authored a groundbreaking study on the trend of state and local governments contracting public services to private corporations.

The study, released March 11, says governments more often are choosing to outsource services in an attempt to trim costs, although that often doesn’t happen. The report sheds light on the full extent of the social and economic impact from contracting public services, including reduced accountability and transparency as control of key public decisions is removed from citizens and their elected officials. Quality also often suffers.

The study found that contracting with private corporations generally reduces worker wages and benefits, which leads to a host of negative effects for the community at large: Reduced spending in local communities and declining retail sales, Risks to public health and safety with less experienced employees and more bureaucracy, Fewer opportunities for middle-class jobs and upward mobility, Higher wage gaps between men and women and blacks and whites, More workers and retirees on public assistance, especially in female-headed households, and Larger share of “at risk” children in low-income families. To help leaders assess the full impacts of outsourcing decisions on their own communities, the report includes a guide

Page 16 of 22 CU Connections Issue: March 20, 2014 Published on CU Connections (https://connections.cu.edu) for calculating the social and economic consequences to a state or community. Examples of statutes that address broader economic and social issues are included.

“There is a wealth of evidence that outsourcing public jobs often diminishes quality without substantial cost reduction. Unfortunately, few states and cities have a serious oversight process to let citizens evaluate what is happening,“ said Greenwood. ““Elected officials often talk about wanting to boost the economy and create opportunity, but many don’t realize how the decisions they control can contribute to the problem … or be part of the solution.”

“The Decision to Contract Out: Understanding the Full Economic and Social Impacts” study was funded by the Jobs with Justice Education Fund, Washington, D.C. and is available at www.uccs.edu/~ccps[44].

Rumack to receive honor from American College of Radiology[45]

[46] Carol Rumack, School of Medicine professor of radiology and pediatrics and associate dean for graduate medical education, will receive the Gold Medal from the American College of Radiology in April in Washington, D.C.

The award recognizes individuals for distinguished and extraordinary service to the ACR or to the discipline of radiology. Rumack is only the seventh woman to receive this award, which has been bestowed 181 times in the past 100 years. Among the six women who have previously received the Gold Medal are Nobel Prize winners Marie Curie and Rosalyn Yalow.

The Society for Pediatric Radiology honored Rumack with its Gold Medal in 2011. And in 2009, she was awarded the American Roentgen Ray Society Gold Medal.

Rumack’s research interests include newborn brain imaging, diagnosis of child abuse and neonatal imaging particularly ultrasound.

Vu receives Google research grant[47]

[48] Tam Vu, assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at CU Denver, recently received a $54,887 award from Google. This award fosters the collaboration between Google and Mobile and the Networked System Lab in the CU Denver College of Engineering Department of Computer Science.

Vu's project, "One Ring to Rule Them All," aims to provide a singular method to protect and use identification and authentication. Known as Capacitive Touchscreen Communication, it enables computers and mobile devices to identify a user by a unique “token,” such as a ring, watch, credit card, phone SIM card, car keys, etc. Once the token is identified, users are granted access to information.

D’Ambrosia recognized with diversity award[49]

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[50] Robert D. D’Ambrosia, professor and chair of the Department of Orthopaedics at the School of Medicine, was presented the 2014 Diversity Award recently by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).

The Diversity Award recognizes members of AAOS who have distinguished themselves through their outstanding commitment to making orthopedics more representative of and accessible to diverse patient populations.

D’Ambrosia helped shape the School of Medicine’s diversity policy. He has embraced the treatment of underserved patient populations to reduce health care disparities. He also was pivotal in ensuring that the University of Colorado sports medicine faculty include female practitioners to help address the needs of female sports teams.

D’Ambrosia, who is also Editor in Chief of Orthopedics, served as president of the AAOS from 1999 to 2000. He has been chair of orthopaedics at CU for 12 years; previously, he was chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Louisiana State University (LSU) for 27 years.

“Diversity is just a natural thing. In my 39 years as a chairman both at LSU and the University of Colorado, I think I was successful because I picked and recruited the right people. I recruited people who were selfless, caring and thought about the people around them. They were amazing,” he told Orthopedics Today. “The award is very special to the departments I represented, because we came from every corner.”

Rosenwinkel films receive international applause[51]

[52] Hans Rosenwinkel, College of Arts and Media associate professor in the Department of Theater, Film, and Video Production at CU Denver, recently was involved with two significant projects.

He produced, filmed and edited a new 13-part, half-hour episodic series and six one-hour shows, titled "Expedition China: Search for Shangri La." Rosenwinkel said the result reflects "unprecedented access to film subjects that ranged from the Terracotta Warriors to Pandas in the wild."

The series is airing worldwide with three major global networks including Discovery Velocity network in the USA, CCTV- China, and National Geographic International in all other worldwide territories.

"The Current," another project co-directed, written, filmed, and edited by Rosenwinkel, features ocean conservationist Jean Michel Cousteau from Ocean Futures, Bethany Hamilton from the movie “Soul Surfer,” and Olympic Gold Medalist and Denver native Missy Franklin. Filmed in the Bahamas, Mexico, Hawaii and Tonga with his creative team, the film was produced in conjunction with legendary adventure sports producer Kurt Miller of Warren Miller Entertainment.

The one-hour documentary features disabled athletes who learn to scuba dive for the first time alongside wild dolphins, sharks and humpback whales. This film debuted in February at the Boulder International Film Festival. After a successful showing, the documentary special was invited to premiere at the Reel Adventures Film Festival in New York City.

Dropping names ...[53]

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Benavidez

Mei-Dan

Josephine Benavidez, general professional, Pre Collegiate Development Program at UCCS, received the Cynthia Gayles Award on March 14 at the College in Colorado Ninth Annual Pre-Collegiate Conference at the Tivoli Center in Denver. The award recognizes dedication to student achievement and includes a $1,000 award. It is presented annually in memory of Cynthia Gayles, a highly respected admissions advocate who dedicated her work to recruiting students, especially underrepresented students, to Colorado colleges. … Omer Mei-Dan, School of Medicine assistant professor of orthopedics and an extreme sports enthusiast, is featured in “Cutting Edge MD,” a program on Fox Sports network. Each week, the program will highlight a common sports injury, include interviews with well-known athletes who have had those injuries, and feature surgeries at the University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital Colorado. Other members of CU’s School of Medicine faculty will appear on the show. Mei-Dan’s recent publications have focused on climbing and BASE jumping injuries as well as observing the mental characteristics and hormonal changes exhibited by extreme sports athletes. … Three UCCS staff members were named 2014 Rising Stars by the Colorado Springs Business Journal. The staff members are: Megan Bell, director, University Center; Samantha Bruner, alumni relations, College of Business; and Jessie Pocock, development and events director, Galleries of Contemporary Art. The three were recognized for their roles in improving the quality of life in Colorado Springs during a March 13 reception at the Hotel Elegante. The awards were presented by Jennifer Furda, associate publisher, Colorado Springs Business Journal. CU Regent Kyle Hybl was the keynote speaker.

From left, Samantha Bruner, Jessie Pocock and Megan Bell.

CU-Boulder seeking proposals for new MOOCs[57]

The Office of the Provost at CU-Boulder is calling for proposals for a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to be run on the Coursera platform in fall 2014.

Last fall, the University of Colorado Boulder fielded four MOOCs on the Coursera platform. The four courses included two graduate courses from Engineering (“Introduction to Power Electronics” by Bob Erickson and “Linear and Integer Programming” by Sriram Sankaranarayana and Shalom Ruben), one English course (“Comic Books and Graphic Novels” by William Kuskin), and one Physics course (“Physics 1 for Physical Science Majors” by Michael Dubson). The four courses ran from between seven and 12 weeks and served 125,000 students.

We seek proposals to add one additional MOOC to the Boulder portfolio in the fall of 2014. Proposals are welcome from current CU-Boulder faculty with tenure, instructors, or faculty/graduate student teams.

Complete proposals should be submitted electronically by the chair or director of the sponsoring unit to William Kuskin ([email protected][58]) by April 11.

Applications materials should include 1-page Rationale, including who will be involved, whether the course has been taught online before, what funding sources are available to support the project, and what additional funding will be needed, as well as any planned assessment projects. 1-page Course Description, including a time frame for prep and delivery. 1-page Chair/Director’s letter of support.

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The Technology and Distance Group will evaluate the proposals and forward recommendations to Provost Moore and Vice Provost Grant. The Technology and Distance Group includes William Kuskin, Chair/English; Members: Christopher Braider, Director of CMCI; Noah Finkelstein, Director, Center for STEM Learning; Geoffrey Rubinstein, Director of Online and Independent Learning, Continuing Education; Mary Ann Shea, Director of Faculty Teaching Excellence Program; Diane Sieber, Associate Dean For Education, College of Engineering and Applied Science; Caroline Sinkinson, Assistant Professor, University Libraries; Marin Stanek, Director of Academic & Campus Technology Communications & Support/OIT; Members at large: Jeff Cox, AVC Faculty Affairs; Michael Lightner, Chair, Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering.

For more information or to discuss ideas for projects, please contact William Kuskin, [email protected][58].

Applications for PTLC Faculty Researchers being accepted[59]

Funding is available as part of the the President’s Office for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: 2014-2015 President's Teaching and Learning Collaborative (PTLC).

Applications for the 2014-2015 cohort of PTLC Faculty Researchers are now being accepted.

Central to the work of the Collaborative is creating and publishing scholarship in teaching and learning that contributes both to theory and effective teaching practice in and across disciplines. To this end, each Faculty Researcher designs and undertakes an investigation aimed at deepening understanding of disciplinary pedagogy and related to an important issue in learning.

Faculty Researchers design, carry out, and publish research on a particular aspect of learning in a specific course. Each investigator is supported by a Coach and short seminars in how to do education research. Faculty researchers will receive funding totaling $1,550 for their research that may include a student research assistant and travel to present one’s research.

All application materials must be submitted electronically to [email protected][60] by May 16, 2014.

Complete details are posted at: http://www.colorado.edu/ptsp/ptlc/PTLC_Call.html[61]

For information on participants and their research: http://www.colorado.edu/ptsp/ptlc/ParticipantsandResearch.html[62]

To see successful proposals from past years: http://www.colorado.edu/ptsp/ptlc/proposals/ResearchProjects.html[63]

Stay on track to better health, win one of 10 prizes every week[64]

Those who are informed about their own health are more likely to address it – either by acknowledging where they’re doing well and rewarding themselves for it or by managing the areas that call for improvement. Be Colorado invites all primary members of a CU Health Plan to value their health by finding the time to stay on track.

The SUCCEED Health Assessment (HA) is an online tool that helps individuals stay on track by creating awareness of their current level of health through a series of questions regarding habits and lifestyle. The HA is free, confidential and takes only 15-20 minutes to complete. Participantscan complete the SUCCEED Health Assessment online[65] to receive a comprehensive personalized report that offers suggestions on how to achieve a healthier lifestyle.

Page 20 of 22 CU Connections Issue: March 20, 2014 Published on CU Connections (https://connections.cu.edu)

CU Health Plan members who complete the HA this week could walk away with one of two $100 REI gift cards, a tablet, their favorite music device or one of six Fitbits.

Take the HA for one entry into the weekly prize drawings. Like Be Colorado on Facebook[66] for an additional entry! Those who have already liked Be Colorado on Facebook will automatically be entered for a second entry after they have completed the HA. Participants must complete the HA for both entries to be considered. Ten winners will be drawn and notified every Monday during the campaign; participants may only win once. Entries will carry over each week until the campaign ends on April 11.

Move. to earn $25 The HA is an annual requirement of the Move. program. Participants must retake the HA by June 30, 2014 to continue to be eligible for the Move. incentive through the end of this year. Those who have already completed the HA in 2014 do not have to retake it at this time and will automatically be entered into the prize drawing.

Click here[67] to learn more about Move.

Links [1] https://connections.cu.edu/stories/alzheimers-research-highlighted-cu-advocacy-day [2] https://connections.cu.edu/file/cuadvtoppng-1 [3] https://www.cu.edu/cuadvocates/events/cu-advocacy-day-capitol [4] https://www.cu.edu/office-government-relations [5] https://www.cu.edu/cu-advocates/about-cu-advocates [6] https://www.cusys.edu/forcolorado/ [7] http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicalschool/Pages/somWelcome.aspx [8] http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicalschool/departments/neurology/Pages/Welcome.aspx [9] http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicalschool/departments/neurology/clinical/Pages/neuro-behavior.aspx [10] http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicalschool/institutes/lindacrnic/Pages/lindacrnic.aspx [11] https://connections.cu.edu/stories/five-questions-jennifer-caspari [12] https://connections.cu.edu/file/5qcasparipng [13] https://connections.cu.edu/stories/social-climate-survey-set-begin-april [14] https://www.cu.edu/employee-services/mission-and-guiding-principles-university-colorado [15] https://connections.cu.edu/stories/bioscience-collaborations-across-cu-system-receive-boost [16] https://connections.cu.edu/file/butchertoppng [17] http://biofrontiers.colorado.edu/butcher [18] https://connections.cu.edu/people/obituary-stephen-alexander-fischer-galati [19] https://connections.cu.edu/file/pfischerpng-0 [20] http://www.cristmortuary.com [21] http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailycamera/obituary.aspx?n=stephen-fischer- galati&pid=170123186&fhid=6726#sthash.6UvWIzBs.dpuf [22] https://connections.cu.edu/stories/regents-recognize-commitment-service-exceptional-individuals [23] https://connections.cu.edu/stories/cu-boulder-alum-steve-swanson-heading-space-station [24] https://connections.cu.edu/file/swansontoppng [25] https://connections.cu.edu/file/swansonpng [26] https://connections.cu.edu/stories/postdoctoral-research-day-highlights-innovation [27] https://connections.cu.edu/file/anschutzpostdocspng [28] http://www.ucdenver.edu/faculty_staff/research/postdoctoral/forpostdocs/pdrd/Pages/default.aspx [29] http://www.uthouston.edu/president/exec_leadership/ness.htm [30] http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicalschool/centers/WomensHealth/AboutUs/OurResearchers/JuniorFacultyResearchers/Page s/Bridget-Young%2c-PhD.aspx [31] http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicalschool/departments/psychiatry/PsychEducation/ResearchTraining/dprgpostdoc/Lists/Post Docs/DispForm.aspx?ID=8 [32] http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicalschool/programs/reproductive/faculty/Pages/Friedman%2cJed.aspx [33] https://connections.cu.edu/stories/student-dance-raises-more-7000-nonprofit-children%E2%80%99s-cancer-organization [34] https://connections.cu.edu/sites/default/files/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ucd_dance.png [35] http://brentsplace.org/ [36] https://www.facebook.com/cudenverdancemarathon [37] https://connections.cu.edu/stories/study-lunar-crater-counting-shows-crowdsourcing-effective-accurate-tool

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[38] https://connections.cu.edu/stories/conflict-crimea-close-home-faculty-staff-member [39] https://connections.cu.edu/file/uccscimeapng [40] https://connections.cu.edu/people/distefano-appointed-colorado-innovation-network-coin-advisory-board [41] https://connections.cu.edu/across-cu/distefano-attends-white-house-meeting-on-expanding-college-opportunity-cu-boulder-announces- expansion-of-cu-promise-program/phil [42] https://connections.cu.edu/people/greenwood-authors-study-outsourcing-public-services [43] https://connections.cu.edu/file/pgreenwoodpng-0 [44] http://www.uccs.edu/~ccps [45] https://connections.cu.edu/people/rumack-receive-honor-american-college-radiology [46] https://connections.cu.edu/file/prumackpng [47] https://connections.cu.edu/people/vu-receives-google-research-grant [48] https://connections.cu.edu/file/pvupng [49] https://connections.cu.edu/people/d%E2%80%99ambrosia-recognized-diversity-award [50] https://connections.cu.edu/file/pdambrosiapng [51] https://connections.cu.edu/people/rosenwinkel-films-receive-international-applause [52] https://connections.cu.edu/file/prosenwinkelpng [53] https://connections.cu.edu/people/dropping-names-85 [54] https://connections.cu.edu/sites/default/files/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/pdn_benavidez.png [55] https://connections.cu.edu/sites/default/files/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/pdn_Mei-Dan.png [56] https://connections.cu.edu/sites/default/files/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/pdn_uccs-staff.png [57] https://connections.cu.edu/stories/cu-boulder-seeking-proposals-new-moocs [58] mailto:[email protected] [59] https://connections.cu.edu/stories/applications-ptlc-faculty-researchers-being-accepted [60] mailto:[email protected] [61] http://www.colorado.edu/ptsp/ptlc/PTLC_Call.html [62] http://www.colorado.edu/ptsp/ptlc/ParticipantsandResearch.html [63] http://www.colorado.edu/ptsp/ptlc/proposals/ResearchProjects.html [64] https://connections.cu.edu/stories/stay-track-better-health-win-one-10-prizes-every-week [65] https://my.healthmedia.com/index.html?au=CUAUTHCD [66] https://www.facebook.com/pages/Be-Colorado/219241188132145 [67] http://becolorado.org/programs/be-colorado-move

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